TEAM BIOVanessa and Celina are feisty sisters with a 10 year age difference between them. While they are best friends, when put in stressful situations they always fight and bicker. “I am the oldest, so I’m pretty much the boss,” says Celina. “Basically what I say goes.”

The bond between the sisters is enhanced by the inspiration they gather from their role model mom. And while both are petite, they don’t let their small size dictate their chances at winning THE AMAZING RACE CANADA.

“We are the perfect contestants because we are two small girls who will dominate and take down the competition, says Vanessa.”

At only 21, Vanessa is an accomplished actress (MY BABYSITTER’S A VAMPIRE, DEGRASSI: NEXT GENERATION) and Celina is a fashion model, but don’t let their good looks fool you – these girls came to play.

“We don’t take bull,” says Celina. Adds Vanessa, “If someone is going to confront us, or be rude to us, or try to steal our secrets...well that’s not happening.”Motto: “We are mini but mighty.”How will they plan to win The Race: “We may come across as naive or clueless, and we would use this to our advantage as we are not. Also we have lots of experience travelling and in airports.”Number one roadblock as team: “Any challenge that requires pure strength, we may be in trouble, because we are both very small. Little minis!”

The last thing Vanessa Morgan and Celina Mziray worried about was trying to look fashionable as they competed in TV’s Amazing Race Canada.

Instead, the Ottawa sisters concentrated on doing their best during the gruelling challenges that took them over 9,000 kilometres across Canada. The series, which was filmed over three weeks in May, debuts Monday at 9 p.m. on the CTV Network.

Nine teams are in competition for the main prize, which includes $250,000 in cash, free flights for a year from Air Canada and two Chevrolet Corvette Stingrays. About 20,000 people applied to be part of the show.

“There was nothing glamorous about what we were doing, there were tears, sweat and it was the ugliest you could possibly get,” says Mziray, 30, a bikini model.

“When you’re in the middle of a race no one is expecting you to look glamorous. How can you possibly? You don’t even care, you just want to win,” says Vanessa Morgan, 21, a singer/actress, who has appeared in the Disney films Harriet The Spy and My Babysitter’s a Vampire, and in several episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Morgan, who went to Colonel By High School, decided to apply to be part of Amazing Race Canada as a way of bonding with her older sister on an adventurous project.

“We thought it would be awesome to do this. We’re both physical people and thought it would be perfect for us and a good dynamic,” says Morgan, who divides her time between Ottawa and Los Angeles.

“And we love each other but we’re siblings and we fight and we were under a lot of stressful situations.”

Mziray, who left her job as a program co-ordinator at Health Canada and is about to launch a bikini/jewelry company called Her Coconuts, says she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work with her sister. “When my sister called me and asked me to do it, I said ‘Why not?’ It would be a new challenge.

“We understand how we work, we just hope everyone who watches us understands that, too. We are nine years apart but she is my baby, so it was a different kind of dynamic.”

The sisters are bound by confidentiality agreements and can’t reveal any specifics about the show.

Morgan is always in front of TV cameras, but Mziray is not usually in the limelight, so that took some getting used to, she says.

“You have a camera man and a sound guy with you pretty much 24/7. When you leave your room in the morning they’re there and they’re with you all the time,” says Mziray, who went to Bell High School.

The series requires contestants to use their brains as well as brawn to reach the final destination ahead of the other teams. And that’s what they were prepared to do.

“I don’t think you have to be physically active to win the show, you just have to be able-bodied and think strategically. It’s not about being the most physical person,” says Morgan.

She says she knew she and her sister would be considered underdogs.

“I know people will look at us and think, ‘Those girls are all about the makeup and are all about looking good,’ but they don’t know we’re strong girls and fighters,” says Morgan.

“We say don’t judge a book by its cover. We were raised by our mom, who was a thalidomide victim; she’s a strong woman who is legally blind. We were raised in a home where we were taught not to look at somebody and judge them by their looks,” says Mziray.

1. Don't pick up the phone - You know he's only calling 'cause he's drunk and alone.2. Don't let him in - You have to kick him out again.3. Don't be his friend - You know you're gonna wake up in his bed in the morning.And if you're under him, you ain't gettin' over him. ♥

VANESSA & CELINA OMG PLEASE WIN THIS RACE SINCE IT WILL BE THE GREATEST MOMENT IN HISTORY SINCE THAT GUY MADE ELECTRICITY

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1. Don't pick up the phone - You know he's only calling 'cause he's drunk and alone.2. Don't let him in - You have to kick him out again.3. Don't be his friend - You know you're gonna wake up in his bed in the morning.And if you're under him, you ain't gettin' over him. ♥

1. Don't pick up the phone - You know he's only calling 'cause he's drunk and alone.2. Don't let him in - You have to kick him out again.3. Don't be his friend - You know you're gonna wake up in his bed in the morning.And if you're under him, you ain't gettin' over him. ♥

Fair warning - if they win I'll probably turn psychotically happy and go crazy in this thread. Either that or I'll faint so someone order an ambulance on standby plz.

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1. Don't pick up the phone - You know he's only calling 'cause he's drunk and alone.2. Don't let him in - You have to kick him out again.3. Don't be his friend - You know you're gonna wake up in his bed in the morning.And if you're under him, you ain't gettin' over him. ♥

Clearly if they win, paramedics worldwide will be working overtime tonight/tomorrow.

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1. Don't pick up the phone - You know he's only calling 'cause he's drunk and alone.2. Don't let him in - You have to kick him out again.3. Don't be his friend - You know you're gonna wake up in his bed in the morning.And if you're under him, you ain't gettin' over him. ♥

They were such a trainwreck, but that's why I LOVED them.Such a comedic gold team without any purposes of being one.Even at the finale - Vanessa having a Flo moment, worrying about how if the rope unties wearing nail polish on the final leg Thinking about quitting on the final task

For anyone interested, I will be holding a candlelight vigil for Vanessa & Celina at my place. Bring your own candles, since I can't afford seven billion candles and I'm expecting at least that many people to show up in memory of this goddess team.

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1. Don't pick up the phone - You know he's only calling 'cause he's drunk and alone.2. Don't let him in - You have to kick him out again.3. Don't be his friend - You know you're gonna wake up in his bed in the morning.And if you're under him, you ain't gettin' over him. ♥

The Bureau of Statistics isn't giving me statistics on alien population numbers, so we'll just play it by ear and see how many turn up.

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1. Don't pick up the phone - You know he's only calling 'cause he's drunk and alone.2. Don't let him in - You have to kick him out again.3. Don't be his friend - You know you're gonna wake up in his bed in the morning.And if you're under him, you ain't gettin' over him. ♥

Celina Mziray and Vanessa Morgan say while they are disappointed they didn’t arrive at the finish line first, the right team won “The Amazing Race Canada.”

“I truly believe it went to the people who deserve it and needed to win the most,” says Vanessa, in reference to how Tim Hague Sr., who has Parkinson’s disease, and son Tim Hague Jr., took home the grand prize on Monday night’s finale.

“You have to think everything happens for a reason. Twice (they were saved) by non-elimination. They’re good people. They’re bringing awareness to Parkinson’s,” says Celina.

The sisters from Ottawa, Ont., finished in third place behind runners-up Jody and Cory Mitic.

Even though they had troubles finding a “golden” chocolate bar at the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, Vanessa and Celina quickly retrieved their next clue at the Toronto Zoo (while Tim and Tim struggled to find it) and arrived at the final Roadblock challenge in first place.

The challenge required Celina to match the flags and flowers to the provinces and territories they visited along the way, which proved to be a difficult task.

“I had no clue,” says Celina.

“We studied maps, we studied everything else and flowers was something we said we needed to study and then it never happened,” says Vanessa.

Celina says once she saw she had to match the flowers she knew it was all over.

“I knew I was done. Finished. I knew it then. It’s just the worst feeling,” says Celina.

From shoveling coal in Drumheller and searching a bin full of lentils in Regina to driving a standard transmission in Halifax, the girls faced a number of difficult challenges during the “Race.”

For Vanessa, the hardest leg was in Iqaluit.

"That whole day – the harpoon challenge and pulling the sled – it felt like death,” says Vanessa.

But the challenge that Celina found the most difficult was the RCMP Inspection in Regina.

“It was after being yelled out (that I cried). The officer was very in your face like, ‘Is this how you live your life?’” says Celina. “The officer was saying ‘clean up your room!’ I thought we were going to be out because of it so that to me was the worst challenge.”

“And the lentils were coming out of her from the previous challenge,” adds Vanessa with a laugh.

But despite feeling like the challenges were insurmountable, the girls found the mental strength to complete the tasks, beating out some of the other teams who had much more physical strength.

“We were the only all-female team there so sometimes having that guy with the extra force for some challenges really did help and we were just relying on each other’s strength,” says Vanessa. “Just never giving up on any of the tasks and getting the Express Pass (also helped).”

The sisters are aware that a lot of people underestimated them but they hope people realize just how strong they were.

“We had fun and did our best and hopefully everyone can see that. Maybe have some faith in us small girls from the start,” says Vanessa.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” adds Celina.

And even though they didn’t win, they say they’re grateful for getting the chance to spend time together.

“We will always have these memories,” says Vanessa. “If someone offered us $250,000 and lose that memory and that time we had I would say, ‘No I’m keeping the memory.’”

“What a great experience to see Canada with my sister and challenge myself,” adds Celina.

1. Don't pick up the phone - You know he's only calling 'cause he's drunk and alone.2. Don't let him in - You have to kick him out again.3. Don't be his friend - You know you're gonna wake up in his bed in the morning.And if you're under him, you ain't gettin' over him. ♥

For their Amazing Race Canada audition tape, Ottawa sisters Vanessa Morgan and Celina Mziray traipsed through the frigid air in parkas and short shorts wielding axes and hammers, going for what Morgan calls a “wilderness-sexy type thing.”“We were like, meh, I think this’ll get us on,” Morgan recalled Friday.She was right and the perennially dismissed team — physically unimposing, perpetually stressed out and cheerfully goofy — somehow upended the expectations of competitors and viewers alike to finish in the Top 3 of the reality show’s first season, which wrapped in September.With CTV currently accepting auditions for Season 2 hopefuls — the deadline is Dec. 26 — the plucky duo is hoping they can inspire other Canadian pairs who would otherwise balk at the physical demands of the race-around-the-country series.“I think we motivated a lot of people who might not have applied to the Race thinking it was a more athletic show,” said Morgan, seated next to her sister in CTV’s Toronto headquarters.“We motivated a lot of people who are smaller and might not be Olympic athletes to try out. Because there’s a lot of other skills and as long as you’re a healthy person I think you can have a shot.”The sisters certainly never seemed a viable threat to win. Early on, the pair known as the “hippies” (river-wise B.C. daters Kristen Idiens and Darren Trapp) bestowed an express pass upon the duo because they seemed the least competitive team, a move Morgan now calls “so nice but so stupid.”In fact, Morgan and Mziray carefully played up their ditzy, hapless image so other teams would overlook them.“We went in (wearing) matching pink, headbands galore — we wanted it to be known that we weren’t a threat here,” said Morgan, an actress best known for her role on My Babysitter’s a Vampire.It was an image that producers also played up, the sisters attested.“We only got like one hero moment on the show,” said Morgan, who’s separated by her older fitness-model sister by 10 years. “You know how sometimes they show hero moments, the music changes for some things? So I found with us we got mostly clown music.”To be fair, the sisters had a habit of meeting each lofty challenge with dire, fatalistic proclamations before eventually persevering.Perpetually frantic, they were the most expressive and, at many times, entertaining of the show’s nine teams. Particularly memorable were the sisters’ struggles with a heavy load of coal, an arctic sled schlep and, perhaps most dangerously, a manual transmission.“I will never drive a stick car in my life again,” Mziray says with a laugh. “I don’t understand why people purchase them.”And yet, the slyly cunning pair nearly won the event. They were the first team to arrive at the show’s final challenge, which required total recall of every provincial flag and flower.In a strange twist, Morgan had actually specifically mentioned to Mziray before embarking that they should memorize the provincial flowers but was dismissed by her older sibling.“Can you imagine? It would have been a different outcome if not for those flowers,” Mziray said. “People would have been shocked.”The sisters say they’ve remained close friends with some of the other contestants, including Montreal doctors Brett Burstein and Holly Agostino, hulking pair Jet Black and Dave Schram from London, Ont., and the eventual winners, Winnipeg residents Tim Hague Sr. and Tim Hague Jr., whom Morgan calls “honorary family.”They have less love for Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod, the fitness-obsessed fiftysomethings who created the nostalgic Body Break TV fitness vignettes.That duo was eliminated after another team used the U-turn feature against them — forcing them to complete an extra task — which the sisters said was indicative of how the other teams viewed the Oakville, Ont., pair, whom Morgan and Mziray said behaved differently than the friendly image they presented in onscreen interviews.“They weren’t getting along with any teams,” Mziray said. “There’s another tip for you if you get on the Race: really try to get along with everybody because you don’t want to get U-turned.”“And don’t talk bad about people behind their backs,” Morgan continued. “I think that was their downfall too. I just lost respect for team Body Break when I heard what they were saying about me behind my back. I thought it was really immature for a man of that age to insult other people like that.“They commented (on our) eyelashes, called us the weakest team, said we were venomous . . . I’ve listened to so many of his radio interviews. I don’t know what he had against us, but I think it’s just called being a sore loser.”Flowers aside, the sisters are pleased with how they performed during the race.Even their family didn’t believe they would thrive, with Mziray recalling their laughing brother telling them upon their departure: “Just don’t be out first girls.”So they feel as though they proved something.“Watching it was an incredible experience,” Mziray said.Contributed Morgan: “It was like watching an amazing vacation in HD.”“Our size compared to all the other teams, to get as far as we got and to be the only female girl team there, I’m so proud of how we did,” Mziray continued. “And no one can say anything about that.”

“Be yourself” is always a good maxim. But if you’re applying to be on a reality series, you need to take that advice and amplify it about 150 per cent.

Sisters Vanessa Morgan and Celina Mziray came in third on CTV’s The Amazing Race Canada and have some tips for people considering applying for the second season of the TV series. Like, knowing how to drive a stick, perhaps?

“We actually both took lessons before we went on, but it wasn’t enough,” Morgan says with a laugh. Alas, those tutorials weren’t enough to save them the pain and embarrassment of grinding gears to dust during some sections of the race.

“With the stress and cameramen in your face, all that time (practising) goes through the window,” Mziray adds.

On the inaugural season of the series, nine teams raced from sea to sea to sea, completing various challenges in the pursuit of the grand prize of $250,000, a pair of Corvette Stingrays and a years’ worth of travel on Air Canada. Winnipeg father-and-son team Tim Hague Sr. and Tim Hague Jr. took the title, but the sisters say they still came out winners.

“The race changed me in the sense of realizing how strong I actually am, because you are under a lot of stress every day. But we never quit, we never gave up,” Morgan says. “Looking at life, going forward from the race, I’ve just been stronger.”

Emphasize your relationship in your application video, the pair stress. The producers want to see how team members relate to one another. Season 1 featured a pair of over-the-top goofballs (Dave and Jet), Type A married doctors (Holly and Brett), some homegrown celebrities (Hal and Joanne, a.k.a. Team Body Break) and more reality TV tropes.

Celina Mziray balances her sister Vanessa Morgan on her shoulders during a challenge on the first season of The Amazing Race Canada.Celina Mziray balances her sister Vanessa Morgan on her shoulders during a challenge on the first season of The Amazing Race Canada.

“Put emphasis on the relationship you have with your partner,” Mziray says. “Instead of focusing on ‘Oh, I’m athletic, I’m this, I’m that,’ really try to show the dynamic of how you work as a team and what would make you interesting. Why would people want to watch you?”

The sisters’ audition tape featured the pair in short shorts in the snow, playing up their physical attributes. It’s a strategy they also used during the race during a busking challenge. (Mziray is not a bikini model by chance.) The pair’s fun-loving attitude, as well as the mother-daughter aspect to their relationship (Morgan is the younger by nine years) got the attention of casting staff at Insight Productions, which produces The Amazing Race Canada.

Potential racers have until midnight ET on Dec. 26 to get their applications in for the second season, set to tape this spring and air this summer. And, unlike Season 1, competitors on the sophomore edition of TARC must have a valid Canadian passport, suggesting they might leave the confines of the Great White North during their televised journey. (For a full rundown on requirements, or to apply, visit CTV.ca/TheAmazingRaceCanada.)

And for those lucky enough to clear that initial hurdle, be prepared to sell yourself like there’s no tomorrow.

“You can make an amazing tape and you can be a great person and be really funny and then you get in front of the director and producers and all of a sudden, you’re shy. Just amp it up,” Morgan urges. “In the interview process, you’re against hundreds and thousands of people. You really need to amp it up.”

After finishing TAR 1-23, watched this Canadian season and ohhhh my god, these girls were too adorable. Here's hoping we see them for Canadian All-Stars, should it ever happen. Them plus Jet and Dave again would be fantastic.